1. Technical Field
This invention relates to guides for water hoses and, more particularly, to such a guide mounted on a house.
2. Background Art
Most occupants or owners or managers of houses, apartments, and other buildings own and use garden hoses to water lawns, plants, bushes and gardens, fill small pools and operate water toys, and wash furniture, walkways, driveways and automobiles, and for myriad other uses. Most buildings have only one or two outside spigots to which hoses can be attached. Use of these hoses can, and usually does, occur at all locations around the property which sites the building. Often, these hoses extend for 50, 75 or even 100 feet singly or in connected combination to enable watering or other use at all locations. This requires that the hose be deployed all over the property, including around the corner of the building, to a use location.
During deployment of the hose, it is desirable to keep the hose from being dragged through flower beds, bushes or vegetable gardens or through other obstacles. To this end, a variety of hose guides have been developed and commercialized. These hose guides are usually staked in the ground near the obstacle to route the hose around these obstacles. Such guides are usually of limited height and located within one foot of the ground, and some include a rotatable guide roller, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,262. Great care must be taken to assure that the hose, usually being dragged by its distal end at a location 3-4 feet off the ground, does not slip out of or over these guides and enter the obstacle.
Other, more elaborate guides have been developed, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,853,142 in which a plurality of rotatable balls are confined in an inverted hook-shaped device to inhibit a hose from movement up and out of the guide. The rollers provide an antifriction bearing to facilitate hose movement and the guide may be mounted to a post or building. However, nothing keeps the hose from dragging on the ground, where the usual obstacles are found.
None of the prior art hose guides assures that a hose, while being dragged into a use position avoids contact with obstacles on the ground. All ground-mounted hose guides present an obstacle to foot traffic and can cause tripping and falls.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a hose guide that assures that a hose, while being deployed to a use position, avoids contact with obstacles on the ground.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a hose guide that eliminates the tripping hazard presented by currently-available hose guides.
In one aspect this invention features a preferably unitary plastic hose guide for guiding a hose mounted on a building above the ground so that a hose is lifted high enough to avoid contact with obstacles located on the ground adjacent a building while being deployed to a use location.
In another aspect, the hose guide of this invention features an elongated guide member has a J-shaped curved trough for retaining a hose placed in it. The trough has downwardly curved entrance and exit lips to facilitate hose movement into and out of the trough. The lip of the J-shape retains the hose in the trough by preventing the weight of the hose from pulling the hose outwardly and downwardly out of the trough, while readily permitting lifting of the hose out of the trough when desired. Preferably, a mounting bracket spaces the guide member from the building where it is removably secured by headed fasteners.
In yet another aspect, the mounting bracket includes a pair of legs spaced to embrace a downspout and space the guide member beyond the downspout.
In a further aspect, the hose guide of this invention features a unitary plastic guide having a semi-circular trough with a generally C-shaped cross section to direct the hose around a corner of the building. The hose is retained by one protrusion extending upwardly from the extended lower lip of the C-shape to retain the hose within the trough during hose movement. Preferably, headed fasteners on the building cooperate with keyhole-shaped slots to removably mount the hose guide on the corner of the building.
In a yet further aspect, this invention features a method of deploying and using water hose which prevents interference with ground obstructions adjacent a building while deploying and using the hose, comprising the steps of
providing at least one hose guide mounted on the building above ground level,
placing the hose in the guide,
providing means for preventing accidental dislodgement of the hose from the at least one hose guide during deployment and use, and
pulling the hose through the hose guide to deploy the hose.